Mud dauber in the context of Mandible (insect mouthpart)

Potter wasps (or mason wasps), the Eumeninae, are a cosmopolitan wasp group currently considered a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family, Eumenidae.

Mud dauber wasps, which also build their nests with mud, are in the families Sphecidae and Crabronidae and not discussed here.

Sceliphron, also known as black-and-yellow mud dauber wasps or black mud-dauber wasps, is a genus of Hymenoptera of the Sphecidae family of wasps. They are solitary mud daubers and build nests made of mud. Nests are frequently constructed in shaded niches, often just inside of windows or vent openings, and it may take a female only a day to construct a cell requiring dozens of trips carrying mud. Females will add new cells one by one to the nest after each cell is provisioned. They provision these nests with spiders, such as crab spiders, orb-weaver spiders and jumping spiders in particular, as food for the developing larvae. Each mud cell contains one egg and is provided with several prey items. Females of some species lay a modest average of 15 eggs over their whole lifespan. Various parasites attack these nests, including several species of cuckoo wasps, primarily by sneaking into the nest while the resident mud dauber is out foraging.

As is the case with many insect genera, there are many tropical species. Some common temperate species include S. caementarium and S. curvatum.

The Sphecidae are a cosmopolitan family of wasps of the suborder Apocrita that includes sand wasps, mud daubers, and other thread-waisted wasps.

The name Sphecidae was formerly given to a much larger grouping of wasps. This was found to be paraphyletic, so most of the old subfamilies have been moved to the Crabronidae.

The Spheciformes is a paraphyletic assemblage of insect families which collectively comprise the "sphecoid wasps", and includes about 10,000 species and several hundred genera. The largest genus is Cerceris (Philanthidae), with almost 900 species. Larvae are carnivorous, consuming prey captured by adult females and typically paralyzed with venom, provisioned in underground nests.

Spheciformes includes all the members of the superfamily Apoidea which are not bees and which in older classifications were called the "Sphecoidea". The group includes familiar types of wasps such as mud daubers, digger wasps, sand wasps, cicada killers, and cockroach wasps.